Gallery

A lot of libraries have art galleries, so it seemed reasonable for a virtual library to have a virtual art gallery. Or photo gallery, in this case, since I'm not an artist but I am a photographer.

My dad bought me my first camera (Agfa ClilckII) in the year 1960. It was a bliss to take pictures during various occasions. Hundreds of b/w pictures taken on 120 film still adores my album. This are the best!

Exakta is a real man's thing. What you get is a film winding mechanism, a shutter, a lens with aperture, all of it nicely engineered, a piece of old-time precision machinery — and then it is up to you to come up with good pictures.

This is a camera with personality, unlike most others. Some people say that's because it was built with the German "I know what's right for you regardless what you think" attitude (I might agree).

Focusing is a responsible task: it must be trusted to the right hand, therefore the shutter release has to be on the left. Being able to cut your film in mid-roll is an essential need. Having fast and slow shutter speed adjusted with the same knob is for weenies (read: Leica users), and it needlessly complicates the construction.

Don't try to turn this knob until the film has been wound, or else. And so on. Frankly speaking, during the last years of the Exakta line the Japanese SLRs were already better-designed, better made, and were delivering better results. Exakta was doomed to become an oddity. This accelerated its demise at that time, but it also adds to its charm and attractiveness now.